Ministering When It’s Inconvenient

I am re-posting this from my wife Nicki and my mother-in-law Elaine on Facebook. It appears the original post came from the True Woman blog by Erin Davis. This is a great article…

In Matthew 15:29, we find Jesus trying to rest on a mountainside. He barely sat down when a crowd of people came to Him looking to be healed. How did He respond? He healed them.

When Jesus received word that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been killed, He tried to grieve alone. But crowds of people followed Him and begged for His attention. Scripture tells… …us that instead of hiding in His grief, He had compassion and healed the sick in the crowd (Matthew 14:13–14).

On the night before Jesus was betrayed, He didn’t hide out. He didn’t run away. He spent the evening with His disciples. He even took the time to serve them by washing the mud from their feet (John 13:1–17).

If we look closely, we find an interesting pattern. We know that Jesus spent His time on earth serving others. But have you ever considered how often He ministered when it was inconvenient?

  • He served others when He was tired.
  • He served others when He’d have rather been alone.
  • He served others when He was sad.
  • He served others when He’d been serving non-stop for days and days.
  • He served others when things went terribly wrong in His own life.
  • He even served others when He knew His own death was right around the corner.

I am deeply challenged by this truth. You see, I don’t mind serving others when it’s convenient for me. I like to help out when it works into my schedule or fits into my agenda for the day. But there are lots of times when ministry is inconvenient. I’m tired. I’m stressed. I’ve got more important things to do than to meet the needs of those around me. Under those circumstances, I feel justified in giving priority to my own needs and temporarily ignoring the needs of others.

But this isn’t how Jesus lived. It isn’t how Jesus served. And it isn’t what He wants from you and me.

The reality is, serving others requires sacrifice. If we only do it when it’s convenient, we’re missing the point.

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Costa Rica Update Day Six

First of all, I found out I can share my public mobile uploads folder from Facebook so you can see a few of the photos I have uploaded via my phone, I still cannot upload via my ipad (lame).

Yesterday, Sunday, was our “Celebrate Day” here in Costa Rica. All throughout the week there was a lot of discussion about what we should do on our free day. We originally talked about going white water rafting and zip lining, but the prices increased significantly since the first time the group did that two years ago.
We then talked about going to the beach, which would have been a lot cheaper, but later in the week, it started calling for rain most of the day (P.S. It rains a lot in Costa Rica, especially during this time of the year), so we decided to tour San Jose, Heredia and go to the mall and the souvenir shop.

It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, but as we were preparing to leave the museum, it started getting cloudy and dark like it was going to downpour on us; and it did, for the rest of the night up until around 10 p.m.

We went to the mall to eat lunch. It was a pleasant surprise to find some places we recognized like Wendy’s, KFC, McDonald’s, and the like. We ate at Wendy’s which above all things served Coke Zero, as did every other place that served Coke products. It is good to see that Costa Rica is at least drinking God’s favorite drink.

Yesterday was challenging as my soreness and exhaustion set in from Saturday’s soccer tournament. I am an old man at 30 years old and I used a lot of muscles that I have not used since my junior year in high school, so needless to say mobility was a slight issue throughout the day :)

Today is our last day in Costa Rica to do ministry. We will go to a place called “Moms,” which to my understanding, helps and cares for young, pregnant teens. We will also go back to La Roca for our last visit to hangout with the students and to say our goodbyes.

Please pray for those who we have had the opportunity to serve and invest in that God would continue to do a work in their life, as well, pray for Edwin and his family as they continue to follow Jesus in their ministry to this community through La Roca. They definitely need your prayers. I cannot wait for New Passion to invest in what God is doing through La Roca.

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Costa Rica Update Day Five

I did not have the opportunity to post an update from yesterday, so here it is:

We went to La Roca Saturday morning after breakfast. We played with the kids, helped them do crafts and hung out with the local kids/teens who skateboard. One of our projects this week was to help build La Roca a skateboard ramp and a grinding box, so they could better connect with this growing population of teenagers.

The skateboarders were phenomenal. You have to consider that they don’t have the nice equipment that is made available to our kids in the U.S., and yet they still work hard to develop their skills. I cannot upload pictures from my ipad, but I posted a few on Facebook of two of the best skaters.

After lunch we rented out an indoor soccer (fútbol) field so the kids and teenagers could play. We had four teams and my team won our first game 6-1 and then faced Shane’s team and lost 3-2, however, I must note, he had the two best players of all the younng boys. Shane and I then partnered up with some of the older Costa Rican guys and our team won that game 12-11. Shane scored his first soccer goal ever, I was just happy that I could somewhat hang with these guys as they are phenomenal (I haven’t played in at least 13 years).

In-between the games we had the opportunity to share the gospel with the students. Paige Smith-Robinson shared her story and did an outstanding job! I know a lot of students, who at twelve years old, would not stand in front of their peers and tell such a difficult story, but she did and she pointed the young people to Jesus. I shared after Paige and gave the students an opportunity to place their faith in Jesus.

I don’t know why I did it, because I don’t even do this at New Passion (a lot – very rarely), but I asked the students if they wanted to pray and place their faith in Jesus for salvation. One guy raised his hand quickly and several others followed (of course I’m not sure if they did this because they were genuine or if they saw someone else do it). Afterward on the walk back to La Roca, Drew Hall and I had the opportunity to talk to this guy and ask him if he received Jesus for salvation. He responded yes. We were able to ask him if he had a Bible and if he went to church. He once again responded to our questions. We were amazed he could understand our broken spanish, but we were able to communicate with him. We later asked a translator to repeat with us just so we could make sure, and he responded the same.

The most difficult part about this whole situation is that this young man was totally tuned in. He has been all week, but you could tell yesterday that he was hungry to be with us. My prayer is that he will continue seeking Jesus and that the leaders at La Roca can connect with him and continue to help him grow. He is a great young man and I know God can do amazing things through him. He is one of the leaders in the community, all of the younger guys look up to him.

Unfortunately, I cannot upload pictures right now from my ipad, but I will when I return home. If we are friends on Facebook, I’ve been able to upload some there from my phone.

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Costa Rica Update Four Days In

The internet has been so intermittent here in Costa Rica it has been hard to post any updates. I found out yesterday that if I get up really early before the rest of the group, I have a little bit of extra time on the internet before it crashes.

I have always loved being with people from Latin America. As I have shared before, I used to love going with my dad on trips to south Georgia to the migrant camps to share the gospel with migrants when I was around 12 years old. I said at that time that I would love to do missions work in Mexico, and so it is awesome being here in Costa Rica this week.

So far we have been at La Roca the entire week. Our schedule has been pretty much shot due to rain, but everyone has been flexible and we have enjoyed spending time with the local children and teens that La Roca serves. One of our projects was to build a ramp (with no blue prints) for the boys, as many of them are starting to gain interest in skateboarding. When we started the project we were given a handsaw, a half working drill, and a tool box full of tools that were not meant for carpentry work. The team bought them the appropriate tools, so our work finally got completed on the ramp. Our next project (yesterday), was to build them a box to jump off onto with their boards and to grind on. We thought it would be easy now that we have the tools. We were wrong again. This time the lumber company delivered their top quality warped wood, so our short project expanded into a days work.

Yesterday, we also cooked a bunch of hotdogs and took plates throughout the community and gave away free hotdogs and chips to families. It was pouring rain, but it was a lot of fun.

We have laughed so much on this trip. I love being with these people. Three different churches are here and we get along as Jesus intended as one church. If laughter is like a medicine, it’s no wonder we are all staying healthy, except a few people whose stomaches are having a hard time :)

It’s amazing to see the differences in cultures compared to the U.S.A. Many of our youth (mine included) are spoiled, many of these kids simply enjoy being picked up and “Quantas” (Spun around in circles) for fun. I love seeing their smiles and the joy that it brings them for a group of Americans, who they can barely understand, comes to them to share the love of Jesus.

I’ll update some more later. Continue to pray for us, for the people here in Costa Rica, and for the La Roca Ministry, that God would continue to receive glory from it all.

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Drummer Needed in Augusta Georgia Area

New Passion Church is looking for a skilled drummer for our band. The weekly commitment consists of a Tuesday evening practice and a Sunday performance which includes set-up before service, a live instrumental intro, a 5 song set-list, and breakdown after service (New Passion is a portable church that meets at Patriot’s Park in Grovetown, Georgia). Throughout the year there will be other opportunities for the band to play in other community events through New Passion and with other organizations.

Here are a couple of samples of our band, the video quality is not great. We also occasionally perform a cover song if the song applies to our sermon series:

If you would like to try-out for the band or if you know of someone who may be interested, please contact Jonothan Powell by email or by phone (706.231.8268).

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Help Metro Ministries Win a New Roof!!!

I would like to introduce you to a church and ministry in the inner-city of West Baltimore. Their name is Charm City Church and their pastor is Mike Kemper. You won’t find him on Facebook or Twitter but the church does have a website (charmcitychurch.org). The church cannot support Mike full-time so he works a full-time job during the week, like me to pay the bills. There is one thing special about this church, their people love people and they are doing all they can to bring revolutionary compassion to those most people in society would consider unlovable, dirty, broken, addicts, unwanted……..I have known Mike and his family for years, they have been great friends to our family. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk and he walks the talk. He has a genuine love for the people of his hometown. He is driven by the gospel of Jesus to see their lives changed.

They have an amazing ministry called MetroKidz, led by Colleen Smith, where they weekly minister, mentor, and educate around 120 kids from one of the darkest and most crime-ridden areas of Baltimore City. I’ve personally visited their church and taken a missions trip to this area. I can’t describe it in a blog post, but I walked away about three years ago when Nicki and I went to visit and made a promise at that time that when we launched New Passion, Charm City Church would be part of our missions support. We’ve been able to do that over the last several months at $50 a month and because of the faithful giving of New Passion’s people, beginning in 2011, we are going to be able to increase that to $100 a month.

But, all of us have the opportunity to help them right now and it will cost you nothing!!! Go to this link (right now): http://greenroofgiveaway.com/nominees/nominee-detail/?nominee_id=32 and vote for their ministry to win a new roof (up to a $30,000 value) for their building. You can vote everyday until the contest is over and I hope you will do that! It is easy and free…so why are you still reading this? Go! You can find out more about their ministry and watch a video while you are there voting….Go, Go, Go!

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Ten Turkey Thursday

one27-turkey-project

Update: We raised all of the money to feed 30 families this Thanksgiving! Thank you all for your support and compassion for the people of Grovetown!

If you can read this, you can help! New Passion is working with United We Care for our annual ONE:27 Turkey Project to provide 30 complete Thanksgiving meals for families who are in desperate financial need in the city of Grovetown. The bottom line is this, without our help, these families will not enjoy a Thanksgiving meal this year. For $20, you provide an entire family a whole turkey and all of the fixin’s. So far, New Passion has raised enough support for 20 25 of the 30 meals, and we are only providing a portion of the need. So far United We Care has approved 44 families for assistance. Can we just knock this out today?!

Ten Turkey Thursday. Will you donate a tax-deductible $20 to provide a meal for a family in need? (If you can’t give $20, give what you can, it will all go towards the meals) Will you also help spread the word through your family and friends and through your social media networks? Please don’t just post the link…ask your friends to get involved and give!

Can we wrap up these final 10 5 meals? I don’t know, you tell me by giving below…. :)

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Be Radical, Make War

radicalHey New Passion Family and Friends!

I started reading a book called Radical by David Platt this week. I just started in Chapter 2 and I already regret that I did not start reading it before we began our Make War Series this past weekend. This is a MUST read, it is already confirming that we are on the right track with the Make War series and it’s helping solidify that we have to have a different perspective as a church (Yes, all of that in a chapter and a half).

The best news is…Amazon has the book right now for $5.50!!! [Go Order] The cheapest I’ve found it outside of Amazon is $11+ at Wal-Mart. I highly recommend ordering this book and making it a study companion during our make war series!

Check out the book’s video below:

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Turkey Tuesday

one27-turkey-project

I love Thanksgiving! Okay, except for the one two years ago when I had appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery, but the rest of my Thanksgiving memories have been awesome and full of great food and laughs with my family. It wasn’t necessarily the appendicitis that ruined my Thanksgiving two (almost three) years ago, it was the fact that I didn’t get to eat my traditional Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. I was really questioning God’s love that day :)

I love Turkey and Dressing and the rest of the fixin’s, but it was miserable knowing and seeing everyone else getting to enjoy it while I got left out. That’s why I’m passionate about the ONE:27 Turkey Project that New Passion is hosting. We’ve set a goal to provide 30 complete Thanksgiving meals through United We Care for families in Grovetown, GA who are in financial need. We’ve supported 10 families already, so on this Turkey Tuesday, will you help us support the final 20 families? You can sponsor an entire family with a complete Thanksgiving dinner for only $20 (for multiple families multiply $20 by the number of families you want to help). Thank you for your participation and for making someone’s Thanksgiving one to remember!


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Stay in the Boat by Judah Smith

This is the message by Judah Smith from the New Spring Leadership Conference I attended several weeks ago. The actual title was “Matters of the Meantime” but the overarching theme of the message was “Stay in the Boat.” I was following Judah on Twitter, but I had never heard one of his messages. I was kind of blown away by his attire, I had never seen a man wear leotard before (okay they were skinny, skinny jeans), but he preaches the Word with boldness and blew me away with his message, so he can wear leotards if he wants :)

Check out more videos from the New Spring Leadership Conference.

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